Yahoo Autos Land Rover Is Probably Building a Hardcore Off-Roading Version of the Defender V8
Land Rover is likely planning to build an even more hardcore version of its recently-launched Defender V8, according to Australian car site Carsales.com.au. Michael van der Sande, the head of the company's Special Vehicle Operations division, wouldn't outright confirm plans to build a Raptor-fighting V-8 Defender, but suggested in an interview the car is in the pipeline.
Van der Sande told Carsales.com.au the reason the current Defender V8 wasn't given an SV or SVX badge—something that usually comes on the most expensive, highest-performance Land Rover models—is because it didn't have the correct "amount of technical changes you would expect on an SV product." In addition to the 518-hp supercharged V-8, the Defender V8 also gets a retuned suspension, bigger brakes, and a slick yaw-control traction system.
When asked by Carsales.com.au whether SVO would be developing a Defender V8 that would live up to the badge, van der Sande didn't outright confirm the vehicle, but told the website its 2019 purchase of Bowler—U.K.-based off-road performance specialist firm known for building ultra-capable Land Rover rally trucks—was "very intentional."
"We felt we were slightly underrepresented in performance off-roading," he added.
Van der Sande went on to say he wasn't sure whether a hardcore Defender V8, if it were to be greenlit for production, would carry an SVX or an SVR badge. "We have a strategy of remaining faithful to the underlying character for the vehicle we're developing," he told Carsales.com.au.
The only time Land Rover has used the SVX nameplate was for the stillborn Discovery SVX, released in 2017 only to have production canceled. The SVR badge is currently used on the most capable version of the Range Rover Sport.
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